U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall established deeper roots than previously disclosed in Sarasota, Florida, where he had a vacation home that he traveled to on official business and said he used for visiting family.
Marshall and his wife put down roots in Sarasota, hosting fundraising events, obtaining real estate and fishing licenses and filing paperwork from the coastal Florida town while the senator worked in Washington, D.C., and claimed Kansas as home.
The Republican senator’s residence has been fodder for campaign attacks as he faces a midterm election against the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Kansas City-area United Methodist pastor, who Marshall has pointed out owns four homes.
Marshall has faced persistent scrutiny throughout his time in the Congress for his transience in Kansas. Public records show his wife has held a Florida real estate license for half of her husband’s Senate term and has another license application pending. Records also show Roger Marshall has held fishing licenses in Florida since 2019 and used a P.O. Box in Kansas as his primary personal mailing address.
He appeared Saturday alongside Hamilton at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson in the first senatorial debate of the season, where he addressed his residency.
“My home is a short hour’s drive down a gravel road here,” Marshall said.
The crowd groaned, laughed and jeered.
The St. John home is a three-bedroom house that sits on more than 300 acres, surrounded by ponds, he said. Others have described it as a hunting cabin.
He sold the Great Bend home where he said he and his wife raised their kids within days of being sworn into the U.S. Senate in 2021. He previously had a rental property in Santa Cruz, California, which he sold in 2019 for between $1 million and $5 million, according to U.S. House financial disclosures.
The Marshalls bought the Sarasota vacation home for $1.2 million in 2019. Since then, Roger Marshall held active fishing licenses in Florida until May, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records.
His wife, Laina Marshall, held a Florida real estate license from 2021 to 2023 and currently has an application for another pending, according to records from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Her main address is listed on the application as the Marshalls’ Florida home. It is unclear whether she brokered any real estate transactions.
When the Marshalls sold their Great Bend home, the deed was notarized in Sarasota on Jan. 13, 2021, while Congress was on a weeklong break.
The family appears to own more valuable assets in Florida than Kansas, paying roughly five times as much in property taxes in the Sunshine state than the Sunflower state during Marshall’s time in the U.S. Senate, according to county property records in both states.
Marshall has claimed the rural Stafford County house as his home base for years, while voting records show his ballot is mailed to a P.O. Box that is also used as his official campaign committee mailing address. He also used his old Great Bend address on candidate filings until Sept. 11, when he changed it to the Stafford County address, according to Federal Election Commission records.
After initially acknowledging Kansas Reflector’s detailed list of questions, a spokesperson for Marshall’s campaign did not respond to questions about Marshall’s primary residence, personal travel to Florida and his wife’s real estate dealings.
“I only wish I had a home in Florida,” Marshall told reporters in August, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
He told the state fair crowd Saturday: “You’ll be glad to know it was struck by two hurricanes and has been uninhabitable for two years.”
The home is mostly rebuilt and on the market for $1.45 million, according to a real estate listing.
He said he used the home to visit his grandchildren, who live in the area.
“I don’t think anybody in Kansas would hold it against somebody for wanting to go visit their grandchildren,” Marshall said.
Members of the crowd heckled Marshall throughout his explanation, and a chant swelled from the bleachers.
“You don’t live here,” the crowd shouted like they were in a basketball arena.
Hamilton encouraged Marshall to “spend all the time you can in Florida with your grandkids."
Even after the hurricanes’ destruction, Marshall’s ties have remained in Sarasota. He hosted a “Sarasota retreat” fundraiser in conjunction with his own political action committees and the Kansas Republican Party in 2024 and 2025. Politico in 2025 published the invitation to the second annual retreat at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort.
Janette and Stan Gray, a couple from Paola who own an internet company that serves rural areas of Kansas and Missouri, said Marshall’s time in Florida won’t factor into their vote for him in November.
“Come wintertime, anybody that’s smart and has the money heads south,” said Stan Gray, 61.
Janette Gray, 54, said she would “probably do the same” as Marshall.
The couple attended a campaign rally Monday in Olathe, where Vice President JD Vance and half of Kansas’ congressional delegation stumped for Marshall.
Stan Gray said it has remained apparent that Marshall is from Kansas.
“He still is from here,” he said. “You don’t leave Kansas. You just spend some time away from the cold.”
Reporting by the Kansas City Star revealed Marshall took official trips from Washington, D.C., to Sarasota, spending more than $18,000 in taxpayer funds from 2021 to 2024. The trips reportedly stopped after a hurricane destroyed the area. It is unlawful for a senator to use taxpayer money for personal travel.
Marshall has criticized Hamilton for owning four homes. Hamilton is registered to vote in Stilwell, where he said he and his wife live. He also owns a lakefront vacation property in the Missouri Ozarks and two additional houses, which he said he bought for his adult daughters, in Lawrence and Kansas City. The Hamiltons’ trust has owned the Climax Springs home since 2012, according to Camden County property records.
Tyson Brody, a spokesperson for Hamilton’s campaign said Marshall’s ties to Florida “are more evidence Marshall abandoned Kansas, doesn’t care, and simply isn’t doing his job.”
“Kansans have taken note of his absence and deserve to know what exactly the ‘official business’ was that cost them $20,000 for routine trips to his home in Florida,” he said.
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
